GeneNews to Conduct Joint Project Funded by MYR 5 Million Grant from Malaysian Government

GeneNews Limited has announced that it will undertake a two-year joint project to develop blood-based diagnostic tests for liver cancer, Hepatitis B and nasopharyngeal cancer based on their Sentinel Principle™ platform technology.

The Malaysian Ministry of Health will provide a grant of MYR 5 million to support this work which will be executed by GeneNews (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., a subsidiary of GeneNews. Project funding was jointly announced by the Honourable Minister of Health for Malaysia Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai and the Director General of Health for Malaysia Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Haji Mohd Ismail Merican.

"Liver cancer, Hepatitis B - a liver disease that can result in liver cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer - a cancer of the upper throat and nasal passages, are among the most significant causes of chronic disease and death in Asia," said Dr. C. C. Liew, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of GeneNews.

"Our project with the Malaysian Ministry of Health aims to develop blood-based, genomic diagnostic tests for the early detection and staging of these three diseases. This collaboration also gives GeneNews the opportunity to train select Malaysian Ministry of Health staff, contributing to their human capital development, and also adding depth to GeneNews' research and development expertise in Malaysia."

"In line with the strategic restructuring of our operations that was implemented last November, this research and development collaboration will allow us to develop additional tests based on our proprietary Sentinel Principle™ platform technology," said Dr. Heiner Dreismann, Lead Director and Interim CEO of GeneNews.

"This joint project will benefit both the Malaysian government, which could drastically reduce the incidence of and health care expenses associated with these diseases, and GeneNews, through the expansion of our pipeline while we continue to focus on the North American and European commercialization of our ColonSentry™ test from our corporate headquarters in Canada."